This invention relates to web unit handling apparatus and, more particularly, to an apparatus which presents web units in convenient substacks for rapid and reliable accumulation into larger stacks.
My prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,194 dealt specifically with transverse folded products such as tissues and paper napkins. This application deals with products such as cling-free sheets which are not folded and with towels such as C-fold towels which are only longitudinally folded.
Apparatus is available for the manufacturing of web products which are not transverse folded and which are not subject to the severe speed limitations described in the above U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,194. However, in frequent instances, such unfolded web products are subject to adhesion when compacted incident to transverse severing and in such cases, severe speed limitations do apply. No apparatus is currently available which avoids the twin difficulties of compaction adhesion on the one hand and speed limitations on the other.
These difficulties and limitations have been avoided through the practice of the invention which involves separately advancing a plurality of web units along the same plurality of delivery paths, the delivery paths being aligned along a linear collection path. Thereafter, the web units are transferred into the collection path and advanced thereon in synchronism with other web units being transferred to the collection path to deliver a series of substacks which are then accumulated into the desired stack or "count".
Other objects and advantages of the invention can be seen in the details of the ensuing detailed description.